May 21, 2019 Thucydides and E. W. Sledge. Old men must read them before they send young men to war.

May 21, 2019

Thucydides and E. W. Sledge. Old men must read them before they send young men to war. The invasion of Sicily and the invasion of Okinawa would seem to be light years apart, not just 25 centuries. They are not; they are not. They exist on parallel tracks and can be read with chapters alternating. And the weapons don’t change that much. Surely, the men wielding them haven’t.

I have written every year since 1997 of the death of Corporal Leonard W. Putnam

On May 25, 1945 on Okinawa. He was killed – the upper right quarter of his torso was blown off – by a Japanese mortar shell.

He was a 41-year-old piano salesman from Jersey City, New Jersey who was married to Amy’s Aunt Milly. She died in 1969. They had no children.

I have always been prone to narcissism – it’s cheaper than cocaine and it is truly a private vice so I beg no forgiveness – so if I don’t write about him, he will truly die.

There is a wall-bound scroll not 8 feet from where I sit.

“He stands in the unbroken line of patriots who have dared to die

that freedom might live. And grow. And increase its blessings.

Freedom lives, and through it he lives – 

In a way that humbles the undertakings of most men.”

It is signed by the President of the United States.

I am changing the format of this year’s notice. It will include 2 other warriors: men “who have seen the elephant”.

Andy Safner was Amy’s cousin. He was a radio man on the USS Halloran [DE305]. The ship served as bait, on picket duty, North of Okinawa. 3 of his shipmates were killed in a Kamikaze attack. Destroyer escorts were small, slow, thin hulled vessels. They were expendable. That’s why they were 50 miles away from the Essex class carriers and both the North Carolina class and the Iowa class battle ships. Like I said, expendable. In the movie “Zulu”, the private asks the Color Sergeant, “Why us, Sarge? Why us?
 “Because we’re here, lad, Because we’re her. Nobody else. Just us.”

Seaman Safner came home to Bayonne, was a bartender for Felix Milwid, Amy’s grandfather, went to St. Peter’s College at night, becoming an accountant and, later, a partner of Peat, Marwick, married Alice Ozimeck, and lived happily ever after.

I had breakfast with Woody Woodbury Christmas last. 

Since 1954, he has supported his family by telling stories and making people laugh. Prior to that he flew Corsairs and Hellcats in the South Pacific against the Japanese and Panthers against the North Koreans, the Chinese, and the Russians more than 100 times. He flew with Ted Williams and John Glenn.

At the end of “The Bridges of Toko-Ri”, the Admiral asks, after being told of the death of one of his aviators, asks “Where do we find such men?”

“They are all around us. The mists of memory bedim reality. We summon 

these men from time to time. They do what we ask of them. We are made

uneasy by their excesses. We wouldn’t have survived without them. We avert 

their gaze when they remind us of what they did for us. They are ordinary men

 doing extraordinary things.”

Kevin Smith

WARRIORBARDIT@BELLSOUTH.NET